Podcast: ROAD to Housing Act, Rental Tech & Screening, with Boom CEO Rob Whiting – Commercial Observer
Rob Whiting is the co-founder and CEO of Boom, a proptech company building the future of rental financial services for residential property managers across single-family rental, manufactured housing and multifamily. Boom’s three products — Boom Report for rent reporting, Boom Screen for applicant underwriting, and Boom CRM for agentic leasing and self-showing — serve hundreds of thousands of doors and count American Homes 4 Rent and Manage America among their key partners. Before Boom, Rob founded ventures in healthcare and education, including Haystack Health, a telemedicine company, and a financial aid organization focused on FAFSA access. Rob is based in Austin, Texas.
(02:55) Why Rob built Boom
(05:44) The ROAD to Housing Act, explained
(07:11) The 350-home cap & how institutions keep buying
(14:01) Rent reporting as a compliance path
(16:09) What Boom does & who it serves
(17:44) Is screening a commodity? Data quality & hit logic
(21:51) How to evaluate a tenant screening vendor
(25:47) How the ManageAmerica partnership came together
(30:00) Lessons from partnering with AMH Homes
(32:48) Closing the leasing stack gap with Boom CRM
(35:52) Coexisting with Yardi, RealPage, & AppFolio
(37:40) Collaboration Superpower: Daniel Ek🏙️
(05:44) The ROAD to Housing Act, explained
(07:11) The 350-home cap & how institutions keep buying
(14:01) Rent reporting as a compliance path
(16:09) What Boom does & who it serves
(17:44) Is screening a commodity? Data quality & hit logic
(21:51) How to evaluate a tenant screening vendor
(25:47) How the ManageAmerica partnership came together
(30:00) Lessons from partnering with AMH Homes
(32:48) Closing the leasing stack gap with Boom CRM
(35:52) Coexisting with Yardi, RealPage, & AppFolio
(37:40) Collaboration Superpower: Daniel Ek🏙️
